Page 61 of Phoenix

“Good morning,” he whispers.

“Good morning,” I say back.

“Tell me about this.” I feel him caress my left shoulder blade, where a tattoo resides.

“It’s a quote. Mark Twain. When I turned eighteen, my brother took me to get it. He got it too. Mark Twain was our father’s favorite author. So, Marco and I share it as a reminder to be strong, and as a connection to our dad.”

He reads my tattoo aloud, “Courage is the resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.”

“I love that quote.”

He kisses the words on my skin. “Back to reality today.” That fact hits me in the gut with an intensity I didn’t expect.

Back to reality. Back to mindless flirting and nothing else.

I should be happy. I didn’t want to like him anyway.

But...

There’s always a but.

“I’m sure you’re happy to be rid of my snoring,” I kid, trying to keep from sounding too disappointed.

“You’re right. You are quite loud.” He laughs then gasps when I elbow him playfully in the stomach. “Ouch! You wound me.”

He rolls to his back and I turn to face him, resting my hand on his chest.

“This was fun,” I say to him.

“Yeah, it was.” He places his hand on top of mine. “So...now what?”

“Now we go back to Savannah. Simple as that,” I say, only half meaning it.

“Really? We’re just going to ignore what happened?”

“It’s sex, Case. Just sex,” I lie.

“You really believe that? It’s never just been that with us, even before we had sex.”

Goddamn it, Case. Stop being perfect.

“You’re my friend, Case. You’re Grayson’s friend. You’re Amelia’s friend. I don’t want things to get messy,” I say, tracing circles on his chest with my index finger.

“Let me ask you a basic question. Did you enjoy our time together?” he asks.

“Too much. It was amazing.”

“And we’ve been able to keep things from being awkward, right?”

“Mostly, yes.” I just keep forcing myself to like you less.

“Then why stop? Isn’t life about doing what feels good? Isn’t that why you came to Savannah? To have some fun and unwind?”

I look up at him, instantly knowing what he is insinuating.

“Are you asking me to be your friend with benefits?”

“I mean, that’s one way to put it, but I’d rather put it like this…” He rolls me to my back and settles on top of me. He pushes my hair from my face and plants a kiss to my lips before he continues, “I like you, Nora. I like spending time with you, and I think you’re a fucking awesome person. The past two days, I’ve discovered I very much like having sex with you. We are adults. Why shouldn’t we enjoy ourselves in every way?”

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